Writer's Checklist: A Procedural Support for Struggling Writers

Writer's checklists are evidence‐based procedural facilitators that prompt students to actively engage in the writing process. Students with diverse learning needs experience problems when composing texts because of the complex steps involved. To write effectively, students must focus on understanding prompts; setting goals; generating, organizing, and translating ideas; revising content; and editing for conventions. This lengthy process often negatively affects struggling writers’ working memory and ability to self‐regulate the writing process. A writer's checklist, an explicit step‐by‐step action plan, can be used to scaffold struggling writers’ progress and minimize challenges. Writers’ checklists serve not only as concrete reminders of the steps needed to accomplish writing tasks but also as self‐checks to keep students focused and promote self‐regulation. In this teaching tip, the authors recommend using a writer's checklist at the initial stages of the writing process, namely planning and drafting, before implementing it at the revising and editing stages.